How smart is artificial intelligence? (writing unbiased queries)

  • Article

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is increasingly common in our lives. Alexa the voice assistant, self-driving cars, robots; and very likely; your favorite computer games, all use AI. AI has grown more and more powerful in recent years. AI has defeated the world champions in Chess, Go, and Jeopardy. People are wondering if AI has become smarter than humans. You decide to investigate online.

Questions to think about: 

  • What does “smart” mean in AI? 
  • How is AI smarter than us, and how are we smarter than AI?

Try it

  1. First, think about what it would take to be "smarter than" humans.
  2. Open Search Coach.
  3. Type [is AI smarter than human] in the search bar and run your search.
    What did the Search Tip at the top of the results page tell you?
    Why do you think you got this prompt?
    Scan the result titles and descriptions. Do some appear biased? What do they mean by "smarter than"? Can "smart" be measured objectively? 
  4. How might you rephrase your search with less biased language?
  5. Try changing your search to [AI vs human].
    What results do you get? How are they different from your previous search? Are there useful resources for our questions among the results?

Think about it

  • Why is it important to search with neutral or objective language? 
  • How can the way you form a search change your results?

Teacher resources